AMATEUR BUYING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 22, 23 December 1944, Page 7

AMATEUR BUYING

Commenting on "amateur buying" by tbo New Zealand Government, particularly in relation to purchases by the Ministry of Supply of towels, col>ton trouserings and denims, the Mercantile Guardian, a London export journal, states that these roughhoiisc methods, which commend themselves so to the trade and ultimately the consuming public in New Zealand, fail also to elicit admiration in England. "The Dominion Government, as already known, placed orders with one Manchester firm for some 2,000,000 .yards of cotton trouserings, and denims," states the journaJ. "Various houses were given the sponsorships, only to find that they lrad perforce to take the particular qualities for which the Government had placed orders, irrespective of whether the material formed a part of their regular business or not. It is not, therefore,, surprising to learn that the honour has been in some cases declined. "It is understood the stuff is neverless to be shipped out to New Zealand, there to await a fate which doubtless will become known in time. In doing things in a big way with the aid of a big stick, big mistakes are always liable to happen, and they have not been avoided by the New Zealand Ministry of Supply. Mistakes can be minimised, but in order to reduce them one needs to go the right away about, and why departments should not, only departments know."